Ronayne hails Mourne stars as they finally deliver in showdown
MOURNEABBEY manager Shane Ronayne hailed his players for finally peaking on the big occasion to claim the All-Ireland senior club title at the fourth attempt.
Doireann O’Sullivan’s brilliance and a goal from Laura Fitzgerald were decisive as the Cork champions, who had lost three of the last four finals, secured a stunning six-point win over Foxrock-Cabinteely at Parnell Park.
Mourneabbey played with a strong breeze at their backs and were 1-12 to 1-3 ahead at half-time despite Fiona Claffey’s goal.
They scored only one point in the second-half, but that was enough to secure the Dolores Tyrrell Memorial Cup for the first time.
“They performed to their potential today. We said if we got a performance out of them we’d win,” said Ronayne.
Outcome
“That’s what they focused on. We didn’t focus about winning, we didn’t think about the result. If we performed, we’d get the outcome we want.
“That was the big thing, they performed today. The previous finals we’ve sat back and we’ve been too defensive.
“Today they expressed themselves and were outstanding.”
Mourneabbey were edged out by Carnacon in last year’s final and also lost the 2014 and ’15 finals, but they took an early 0-8 to 0-1 lead.
All Star sisters Doireann and Ciara O’Sullivan tormented the Foxrock-Cabinteely defence and once Emma McDonagh was sent to the sin-bin in the fifth minute, the Munster champions took complete control.
“That was a big help to us, but we did go after their kick-out and we had even before Emma went off,” said Ronayne.
“I was talking about maybe two points each after 15 minutes, and we were 0-8 to 0-1 up.
“We knew we were in a good place and at half-time we spoke about kicking on.
“We didn’t want to play defensively. The ball handling was just brilliant. They kept it simple and I think that was the key to it.”
Claffey hit back with a goal before half-time but the 2016 losing finalists couldn’t recover in time.
Foxrock-Cabinteely manager Pat Ring believed Fitzgerald’s goal killed the game before his team got a foothold.
“We knew what was going to happen, but we just seemed to be at sixes and sevens for the first 10 minutes until we sorted it out,” said Ring.
“Then they got a goal. We responded very well and got a goal back, but the damage was done. It was done too early. You can plan as best you can, but we have to execute it.
“We were beaten by a far better team. There’s no arguments there.”